"Do you think we should have white or black table covers? Oh and should we have chair covers too? They'd look nice." I trailed off as I jotted down in my notepad. "For the table setting, will it be proper formal or not? Crockery or plastic?"

"You need to chill." Ben rolled his eyes and played threw a tennis ball in the air and then caught it again, like he's been doing for the past hour.

We were sat in Ben's bedroom, it was a pretty messy room if I do say myself, and that's me talking. His room - dare I say it - is messier than mine, I didn't even know that was possible. There were lots of sporting supplies around the room like racquets and shuttlecocks and running shoes and football boots and a skipping rope and some dumbbells that looked too heavy for me to carry.

His desk on one side of the room was tidy, that and his bookshelf that had thick books that I wouldn't give a second glance at, I also noticed the insane amount of books that were filled with practice exam papers for tons and tons of GCSE subjects. Compared to my room, Ben's had a vibe. When you walk in, you're basically looking at his soul. There's plenty of band posters around and lots of photo frames with family and friends and then there's a cork board with more photographs- alot of them were of him playing gigs.

Speaking of gigs, there were two acoustic guitars, one electric and a ukulele in the corner of his room, they were all leaning against each other and I'm no guitar geek but I know for sure that it's bad to leave them in the state they're in. They'd just get dusty and scratched.

"I know but to be honest, once you get into this planning, it's not so bad." I shrugged and looked at the venue on Ben's laptop once more, it was a nice venue that was secluded from the town, it's was in the countryside; it was pretty big and there was a nice outdoors part with a fountain and some picnic tables.

"Sometimes I wonder how you're related to Liam." He started, "he wouldn't do this kind of stuff, would be? He'd just expect it handed to him on a silver platter."

"Oi, shut up you mug." I glared and he rolled his eyes dramatically, throwing the ball up in the air and catching it.

I got up from the desk and sat down with my legs crossed at the very end of the bed, I diligently placed the laptop down and went back to writing in my notepad, deciding whether the tables should for six or eight people.

"Are you on the committee?" I asked.

"Nah, I have better stuff to do with my life." He snorted and sat up, sitting closer to me and turning the laptop around to face him. He typed some stuff into the search bar and then he handed the laptop back to me.

"Those table decorations are perfect!" I gasped and jotted down the link of the website on my notebook. "So in all seriousness, why are you suddenly being nice to me?"

I looked at him while he just sat there, fiddling with the tennis ball. "I'm always nice, I've just never breached out to many people."

"Yeah, and I live underwater with the fish and I have a mermaid wife." I snorted, causing him to give me a funny look.

"Because why not." He shrugged and smirked at the fact he just copied what I said earlier on to Rebecca.

I shook my head in disapproval and shut my notepad and put it back in my rucksack. "You know, you're a terrible party host."

He looked at me in amusement but didn't say anything, he just threw the ball up in the air one more time and caught it and then threw it somewhere within the pile of crap on his bed before getting up and straightening out his clothes. "I'm an awesome party host."

"You've never hosted an actual party, as far as I know." I smirked. "And I never see you at any either."

"When I have lots of people over, I just hide out in my room and let them entertain themselves."

"But why?" I snorted, that's like the stupidest thing I've heard.

"Because people are annoying and irritating and stupid and their level of intelligence is so low, its hit Atlantis eons ago."

"I can agree with you-"

"Those people include you." He snorted and kicked a few things out the way so that he could walk over to the window and open it.

"I don't know how Jace puts up with you." I crossed my arms over my chest as smirked, "you're a terrible person."

"I can be a nice person- almost angelic." He matched my stance and then he walked across the room the change the song playing on his iPod speaker.

"Yeah right." I snorted, "you're irritating."

"I'm only trying to fit into society."

I tried so hard to not facepalm myself. This guy. This guy is incredibly hot and incredibly smart but he's got the personality of a bratty younger sister. He was buff and all but sometimes you wanted to hug him tight around the neck with a rope.

"It's a nice day out, do you wanna go for a bike ride?" I asked. My house wasn't far from here, it was on the next street from Flynn and Ben's was only a fifteen minute walk from there.

He shrugged and muttered an 'ok' before shoving his feet into a pair of very expensive looking trainers. I put my shoes on and slung my bag over my shoulder while I waited patiently for him to lace his shoes up and put on a light grey hoodie with the words 'The Heart Of London 1969' written on it and bright yellow strings dangling down. How comes in even the most simplest outfits, he pulls it off really well? It's kind of unfair if you ask me. Us normal people have to try hard to look the least bit decent and presentable.

He shut the front door behind him and grabbed his bike from where it was left laying on the grass for god knows how long. He raced down the road and left me in the dust but eventually, I heard the familiar sound of the rubber against the concrete coming closer.

"Dick." I snorted as I carefully stood up on top of the small handles that were on the wheels at the back of the bike and placed my hands on his broad shoulders.

After really badly navigating him to my house, I snuck through the back gate that led to the garden and pulled my bike out of the shed, it was kind of old and had a few spiderwebs on it but I just whacked them off with the sleeve of my jumper while I cringed at the situation.

We went into town and then just cycled around there, the weather was getting warmer and it seemed that everyone had the same idea in mind because there was literally half the population of our town sitting in the park with their shades on, trying to get as much sun as they can before it goes again.

It was five in the evening but it didn't look like the sun was going to set anytime soon. Ben and I stopped for a break in the park and I lay on the grass lazily while he fiddled with the strings of his hoodie and texted on the phone. A comfortable silence wafted around us, the only thing heard was chatter in the distance and little children screaming and the wind, it was nice.

I sat up and glanced to the blonde boy next to me who was too busy trying to flick birds from a sling to notice anything. "I've never seen you with anyone."

"What's your point?" He asked, not taking his eyes off his phone.

I lay back on the grass again and combed my fingers through my hair, glancing up at the darkening sky above me. "Why? You're like... Nevermind."

"Hot? Fit? Smart? Drool worthy?" A small smiles placed itself on his lips.

"Try egotistical." I snickered and continued on dishevelling my hair more. "Answer my question."

"Why do you even care?"

"Because I'm not okay with the fact you know me way more than I know you." I shrugged. He was literally an open book, but at the same time, who knows what lies between the lines?

"I just don't think anybody I meet in secondary school would last as a long term thing so I don't bother." He answered and picked at the grass, grabbing a handful and throwing it on top of my chest. I gathered it all up and chucked it on his hair.

"I see." I pursed my lips and sat up with my knees against my chest. People were starting to leave the park and it was soon much quieter than earlier, like a lot quieter and the silence was growing awkward. I gazed off into the distance, at the children playing tag or kiss chase or whatever it was; they reminded of Cammie, and for a second, my heart literally dropped to my stomach. As far as I know, Cam hasn't been bothered by that girl anymore, I probably scared her off or something but who knows what's behind closed doors? It could be that she won't tell me anymore because it's only made matters worse.

"Whatchu thinkin' bout?" Ben spoke, interrupting my very depressing thought process.

"Cam." I muttered, but realised he probably didn't even know I was talking about Camellia because I shortened her name.

"She's a sweet kid." Ben's lips twitched, "sometimes she helps out with the little kids when I volunteer at the day care centre."

So Ben was not only impeccably smart and buff, and musically talented, he was also very caring and responsible and he's good with kids.

He's like, boyfriend material, but Jace is better of course, he'll always be.

"Can I ask you a personal question?" I asked nonchalantly.

"Yes you can but may you? Nope." He grinned.

"I'm going to ask you anyway." I snorted, "what's your orientation?"

He slipped his phone out of his pocket and fiddled with it. "289 degrees west, not much of a personal question if you ask me."

"Damn you." I rolled my eyes and stood up, brushing off my clothes and picking my bike up.

He snorted and followed suit, tightening the stings of his hoodie before tying it into a bow and hopping onto his bike.

I looked at my watch, before dropping my bike to the grass again and slumping down next to it. "What?" He asked.

"It's six o'clock. I want to watch the sunset." I smiled. He hopped off his bike and dropped it to the ground before plopping down next to me, it wasn't really close but he was sat cross legged like me and out knees were almost brushing against each other.

"It not till seven around this time of year." He uncrossed his legs and leaned back, supporting himself with his elbows.

"I can wait. Gives me more time to figure you out." He shrugged and turned to face him.

"Ask away. Don't expect an answer." He smirked and lay down fully on the grass with one hand behind his hair. If Flynn were here; he'd probably be trying to jump him even though he's the Ben that once got his revenge, violently but with Flynn, he'd probably forget about their past because Ben was drool worthy.

"Do you hate Flynn?" I stared at him intently, I needed an answer to this.

"You know, hate is a strong word." He rambled on, "you should be careful when using it because it might just get you a bite in the ass by karma."

"What the hell is that supposed to mean?" I made a motion to throw some grass at him but he whacked my hand away.

"It means, that I don't hate Flynn, I did, but now I just strongly despise him."

"Flynn's screwed you over in the past but he's honestly a good person on the inside, I think he followed Liam's footsteps because he thought Liam was cool." He did once say 'Liam's cooler than you' to me.

"Pfft, yeah right. He screwed your brother's long term girlfriends but it was kind of expected, right?" He scoffed and rolled a familiar blue tennis ball that magically appeared from nowhere up and down his torso. Seriously, it's like he carries that thing everywhere with him.

My phone buzzed in my pocket and I saw that I had a text from Jace:

Hey, what are you doing?

I replied with a simple:

Just sat in the park with Ben.

And then he asked me a few questions as to why I'm suddenly friends with Ben and I told him we weren't friends and that I wasn't sure why this was all of a sudden happening. I also told him I'll have to talk to him later.

"Do you ever want children?" I asked, all of a sudden curious what the answer would be.

"Three at least." He replied and smiled to himself. "My turn to ask questions."

I felt a little weary of what he'd ask but nodded anyway and lay down near him and went back to combing my fingers in my hair.

"Are you going to come out to the school?"

"I hope to, at some point. I don't know what the reactions will be and whether or not I'll still be involved in Torvux."

"How much do you like Jace, on a scale of one to ten?"

"Infinity." I let out a breath, thoughts of Jace flooded my mind and I broke out into a grin.

"Just making sure, because if you cross Jace, you'll be crossing me." He said with such a serious tone, he was definitely not joking about that.

"I know."

We lay there in silence after that, just looking up at the darkening sky, I was trying to conjure up some more questions and he was probably doing the same. Every few minutes we would ask each other personal questions and then we'd answer them, even with all these questions I still felt like I didn't know him and it's annoying because he knows everything about me. There's not really much to tell about me to be honest.

So far, I found out that he has a cat named Jellybean, he likes the colour gold and that he's an only child. I also found out that he's had quite a few long distance relationships online but they never worked out and that his cousin sister likes to tell him how he should dress or how he should have his hair because she's abnormally bossy.

The sun was starting to disappear and the once bright blue sky was now red with shades of orange and pink mixed in, it kind of looked like somebody had just thrown powder in different shades around. It was absolutely gorgeous and I was half tempted to just stay here and gaze up at the sky for hours on end.

"Do you..." Ben spoke, "do you reckon that your life would be completely different without Torvux?"

"Of course it would, I'd be less popular and I'd have a better set of friends which to be honest, sounds like a dream." I left my hands to lay limply on top of my stomach, "I wouldn't have this stupid bracelet either. It's the only reason people have an interest in me."

"What's wrong with your set of friends at the moment?" He murmured quietly.

"Some of them are just... Too interested in reputation and popularity and girls and boobs." I snorted, "you saw the way some of them looked at me and the rest of the table at lunchtime. To be honest, I like sitting at your table with the others rather than my table with those people."

"Why don't you just join us whenever then?" I turned my head to gaze at him, and grinned.

"I should do that."

The deep shade of red in the sky started to dissipate and left a navy blue sheet instead, the air got colder all of a sudden and I didn't know how much time had passed just sitting in somber silence. Ben was texting on his phone and the screen was illuminating his face. It casted a bright glow and allowed me to see his brown eyes that were as wide as saucers because of the concentration level on his phone.

"Ben." I spoke out, "what's the time?"

"Quarter to eight." He answered.

I stood up and brushed myself off again and sorted out my dishevelled hair that desperately needed a hair wash because of all the times I ran my hands through it.

We both hopped on our bikes and I slung my rucksack over my shoulders. We cycled through the park and raced down the roads that had a very small number of cars driving on it compared to earlier when there was a huge traffic jam.

We cycled to our road and I quickly shouted a 'bye' before turning into my street and hopping off my bike so that I could wheel it back through the side of the house and to the back garden. The gate was locked though so I just left the bike leaning against the wall and made my way towards the front door. Before I could even knock, the door opened only to show a very angry momma.

"Zach, how many times have you skipped dinner this week?! How do I even know you're eating properly?"

"Uh..." At loss for words. My tummy decided to be a needy bitch though and rumble loudly in front of mum.

"When was the last time you've eaten?" She asked with her arms crossed and moved to the side to let me inside the house.

"I had pizza around four thirty." I tried, I did have pizza at Ben's house because he said there was nothing in his fridge and he couldn't be bothered to run to the store. I felt bad he paid for it though so I only had two small slices.

"Go heat your food up in the microwave." mum sighed and closed the front door.

I did as she said but not before kicking my shoes off somewhere where somebody would most probably trip over it later on and putting my rucksack on the staircase to take upstairs later on. The food was already in a plate for me so I just covered it with another plate and set the microwave to one minute.

I checked my messages in the time that I was waiting and came across about seven messages from Flynn, two from Liam, four from Calvin and three from Ryan and they were all from this afternoon.

They all read basically the same thing.

Why are you talking to Ben?

The only exception with Flynn's was the endless amount of swear words and angry looking emoticons. Calvin and Liam were similar in ways because they didn't exactly threaten me with extremely bad grammar because of it like Ryan.

I didn't realise me hanging out with people outside my usual group of friends would become such a big deal but then again, I was hanging around with Ben and to be honest, I wouldn't mind hanging with him again because he wasn't so bad.

Or maybe he was, but I hadn't realised it.